Musical Inspiration Challenge Part 4: The Antagonist

 

Kate Bush.

Never Be Mine by Kate Bush.

Kate Bush is a renowned name. Something that people who follow music should know about. She got her start back in the 70s, in Britain. She’s associated with other such musical luminaries as Peter Gabriel, and is generally considered a pretty solid progressive artist. She sings about weird stuff too. Personally, I’ve always liked her musical composition and singing voice.

I just didn’t envision her for an antagonist, but given that she’s made songs about evil songs, unstable mothers, devils dancing in red shoes and nuclear fallout bothering unborn children, I should’ve known better than to underestimate her. I keep getting thrown off by how soft her music is. 

Ok.. Let’s start trying to examine this one.. Lyrics!

…

I look at you and see
my life that might have been
your face just ghostly in the smoke.
they're setting fire to the cornfields
as you're taking me home.
the smell of burning fields
will now mean you and here.
This is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
but i know that this will never be mine.
Ooh, the thrill and the hurting
the thrill and the hurting
i know that this will never be mine.
I want you as the dream
not the reality
that clumsy goodbye kiss could fool me
but i'm looking back over my shoulder
at you, happy without me.
This is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
but i know that this will never be mine.
Ooh, the thrill and the hurting
will never be mine.
the thrill and the hurting
it will never be mine.
it can never be
the thrill and the hurting
will never be mine.

…

Ok. I was really, really wrong in thinking this wouldn’t be good as an antagonist inspiration. My apologies Miss Bush. Mea Culpa.

I was thrown off by how slow and soft the song was.

This is freaking GOLD for antagonism.

We’ve got reference to burning cornfields. Loss. Romantic desires, or other desires, left unfulfilled. Nostalgia. Loss.

So to continue to build.

We decided that our inspiration led us to the idea of Hellknights. So, with this particular development, we’ve got an idea for a potential antagonist.

Perhaps someone betrayed by the hellknights? A former lover of one? A child of one? Someone who had their family or love torn apart because of the hellknight’s relentless insane dedication to their brutal destiny and duty?

Loss and bitterness have motivated countless bad folks in the past, but an antagonist isn’t necessarily a ‘bad sort.’ They might just be motivated oddly.

We might also, conceivably, have  a Hellknight driven by their own sense of loss. A family destroyed, or a village decimated, driving them on to actions designed around attempting to conquer or attempting to recreate what they had. Or to preserve.

Useful.

I was wrong to doubt Kate Bush.